May 29, 2007

Even when I stay at home for the holidays, like I did this weekend, the return to the "normal" week never fails to disorient me. There is something about the process of disconnecting from established routines that I find to be a bit confusing.

It usually takes me a solid week to regain my bearings after I return home from a vacation, as I sort through the mail, listen to accumulated phone messages, and catch up on the news. There are the inevitable home maintenance items that need attention, and trips to the grocery store or other errands that need immediate atention.

Even after a long weekend at home, though, I still feel a sense of the surreal when dreaded Tuesday hits and I have to jump into workweek mode. I think that the implicit obligation to be productive once again is the source of the unsettled feeling, seeing everyone driving off to work and getting the urge to do something, anything, so long as it is work-related.

Now, it's not as if I sat home all weekend and flopped on the couch for the duration. We went to the Toledo Zoo on Sunday, saw Pirates of the Caribbean Monday, and I finished planting the rest of my seeds. I finished a book for one of the classes I am taking this summer, and even worked on my syllabus for a world history class I am teaching in the fall.

I think I'll don a pair of Wiley X sunglasses and filter out all those incoming "get busy" vibes I keep feeling.